SKIPTON is a very different place to how it was 150 years ago when the first ever edition of the Craven Herald and Pioneer was published.

Times have changed, not least in the way people get their news. The Herald is 150 years old this year, but unlike its centenary in 1974, a television crew wasn't there to record the event. 50 years ago there was also a congratulatory message to the editor and staff from the late Queen Elizabeth.

Producers of the BBC Man Alive documentary 'Local Rag' hadn't actually realised the weekly paper was 100 years old. They were making a two part programme about the importance of local papers, which also included the Bedfordshire Times, the centenary was however a happy coincidence.

For its special 100th edition, on October 25, 1974, the Herald took a close look at Skipton's 'rugged character' and its 'forthright leading personalities' in mid-Victorian 1874 - the year it was first published.

It was the decade of the town's greatest growth - from 6,078 inhabitants in 1,233 houses in 1871 to 9,091 inhabitants in 1,800 houses in 1881. The population at the time of the 1971 census had risen only to 12,410.

The parish church, Holy Trinity, with its three galleries, was in the charge of the first rector, and first resident incumbent for 65 years - the Rev Philip Chabert Kidd. The vicar of Christ Church was the Rev WH Clarke, whose vicarage stood at the junction of Keighley Road and Swadford Street. The Old Grammar School, on its original site at the end of Newmarket Street, had just 20 scholars and the Girls High School had not yet been founded.

The cotton trade was just beginning to revive after the slump resulting from the American War of 1861 to 65. The main event of the year was Skipton Show - the annual show of the Craven Agricultural Society, while other entertainments included the Royal Alhambra Theatre, a wooden edifice in Otley Road, and the occasional menagerie in Caroline Square. The annual horse fair still flourished and the streets were regularly occupied by the fortnightly cattle fairs, noted as the greatest calving cow market in the country.

The Herald noted at the time that the increase in traffic to 'say nothing of the intolerable nuisance caused by the gathering of too many cattle in a space sadly too limited for their requirements, is such as frequently renders High Street impassable'. The protests at the inconvenience caused by the fortnightly fair did not result in its removal from the streets for another 30 years.

The other 'bete noire' of local politicians was Ship Corner, a notoriously dangerous accident blackspot, in 1874 a writer in the Herald noted: "Our great men think the alteration will cost a lot of money, and as long as they think that only a few cartmen and cab-drivers lose their lives its not a matter of much question'.

The 100th edition itself incidentally coincided with a farmers' protest in the High Street. Then however it was prices that the farmers were protesting about and not changes to inheritance tax.

There was also a special centenary pull out full of key moments of the previous 100 years, all put together by a team of reporters, a photographer, sub editors and an editor. Not to mention all those in the printing works, at that time all part of the High Street premises.

The Herald reported that 'considerable interest' had been generated in the district by the making of the BBC programme and that the editor, John Mitchell, and his staff had been 'agreeably surprised' by the messages of goodwill from many parts of the country after the programme went out.

The BBC had chosen the Herald and the Bedfordshire Times out of 'some 1,200 weeklies' in the country as the subjects for its documentary.

The centenary, although not known by the producers had been 'acceptable grist to the mill' as had the 'accidental clash of their Saturday morning filming of Skipton High Street with the farmers demonstration protest against calamitous prices'.

The programme followed a reporter interviewing farmers on the High Street and the leader of the street-blocking procession of tractors and lorries and the Herald photographer was shown photographing scenes from the event. The editor, John Mitchell, was seen at his desk and interviewed by Man Alive reporter, Jeremy James, about the history of the paper, its policy and prospects. Mr Mitchell reminisced about his 50 years with the firm while the assistant editor, Reg Waterhouse, talked about his coverage of the Hodder Valley Agricultural Show.

Staff reporters were shown filling various duties in the office, and there was also mention of village correspondents, including Grassington's Sheila Denby. In the printing room, the works manager David Cowley showed the running off of 18,000 copies of the newspaper on the Hoe rotary press, which at one time had led a busier life at the Yorkshire Post.